Bringing the World Home

Helping Americans See Past Conflicts at Home to Understand What's Happening in the World in 2026

Tuesday, April 28, 2026
12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. EDT
Location: Old North Hall 205 Map

The United States is undergoing a period of significant political and social upheaval. At the same time, the world is experiencing heightened instability across economic, political, and cultural sectors.

From Ukraine to the Middle East to Latin America, global conflicts aren’t just happening over there. They’re shaping U.S. politics at home and its foreign policy abroad. They are deepening polarization and changing how young Americans see their leaders and institutions.

International news coverage is how most Americans, both policymakers and average citizens, make sense of the world. Covering the world has become an incredibly difficult task over the years, and never more so than in the current moment.

Didrik Schanche and Alan Sipress discussed the challenges of covering a world in turmoil and why international reporting matters more than ever in 2026 in a discussion moderated by Terence Samuel. It provided a behind-the-scenes look at how global journalism works in our hyper-connected media environment, and how major newsrooms are rethinking how to deliver international stories with more context and impact at a moment when audiences are overwhelmed by crises at home.

This event was co-sponsored by the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and the Georgetown Journalism Program.

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Participants

Terence Samuel Toggle

About Terence Samuel

Terence Samuel is a veteran journalist and news executive who is the incumbent chair of the National Press Foundation Board of Directors. During fall 2025 he is the Sakka Family Religion and International Journalism Fellow at Georgetown University. He formerly served as editor in chief of USA TODAY, vice president and executive editor of NPR, and Washington editor of the Washington Post. He is the author of The Upper House: A Journey Behind the Closed Doors of the United States Senate (Palgrave-MacMillan, 2010) and his work was anthologized in Best American Political Writing of 2009 (public affairs). He has held research fellowships at the Kennedy School at Harvard University, the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and at the Sine Institute of Policy & Politics at American University. In fall 2021, he was Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. He is a graduate of the City College of New York.

Terence Samuel's Profile

Didrik Schanche Toggle

About Didrik Schanche

Didrik Schanche is NPR's chief international editor. She was the AP's East Africa correspondent for seven years, producing news stories and features from Sudan and Ethiopia in the north, to Zimbabwe and Zambia in the south. Later, she edited the AP's Middle East coverage from her base in Cyprus.

Didrik Schanche's Profile

Alan Sipress Toggle

About Alan Sipress

Alan Sipress is a former senior editor on the International Desk for the Washington Post, where he previously covered the Middle East, federal policy and accountability, and economics and finance. He was the Middle East correspondent for the Philadelphia Inquirer based in Cairo from 1992 to 1996 and the Southeast Asia bureau chief for the Washington Post based in Jakarta from 2002 to 2006.

Alan Sipress's Profile